During the time period of 1933-1945 the Nazi's (The Definition of Nazi) killed over 4,000,000Jewish people; they also killed the Romani (Gypsies), Soviet civilians, Ethnic Poles, people with disabilities, Homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, other political and religious opponents, and Soviet prisoners of war.
It can't be certain how many people they murdered overall, but it is estimated to be about 11,000,000 to 17,000,000.

Before World War 2, English speaking people used the term "Holocaust" with the meaning of "great sacrifice or massacres". I'm almost positive that when we hear "Holocaust" now, we think of a few things;
-Adolf Hitler.
-Jewish Men, Women, and Children getting shot, gassed, or tortured because of their religion.
-The Hollywood movie productions based on this event. (i.e. Schindler's List, The Boy in Striped Pajamas)

There were many different forms of torture:

Concentration Camps: forced labor until death inflicted by over-exhaustion, starvation, or diseases from poor conditions.

Extermination Camps: people were forced into a freight train, once arrived, slaves were then told to remove everything (clothes, shoes.. if they owned any) and were crowded into a small room, where the Nazi's would then lock the door, and then gas everyone in the room. The dead bodies were then removed from the rooms, and burned. *Picture; This was the Auschwitz Gas Chamber.

Medical Experiments: some forms of medical torture were when Nazi's placed subjects in pressure chambers, freezed them, tried to change the colour of childrens eyes by injecting chemicals into the pupil, and testing drugs on them.

Families in Concentration Camps were only allowed a limited amount of food a year, which usually consisted of a tiny amount of bread and jam. Lack of food lead to starvation, and starvation lead to death. * Picture; A pile of bodies in que to be burned. Look how skinny they are.

Nazi's would take possessions that were worth money from the Jewish people. (i.e. Jewellery, teeth with gold fillings)

Jewish shops and houses were marked with the "Star of David" so that German's would know not to enter or support jewish people. *Picture; Star of David

Why this relates to The Book Thief:

I haven't finished the whole book, but, I thought it would be interesting for people to learn about the horrid things that the Nazi's were doing in the time period that the book is in.In The Book Thief, Liesel's mother is killed, and I'm predicting more people will die around Liesel because "Death" sees her more than once. The book doesn't tell how they died. (i.e Liesel's brother and mother's death were unknown) So, I thought I would give you a little visual for when "Death" describes how bad it was, because indeed, it was a brutal time in our History.

Well Candace, Max gets captured by the Nazis, and is one day marched down Himmel Street with the other Jews. Liesel runs out there aqnd gets in trouble with the Nazis. That's as much detail that I can go into.

In English 'Mein Kampf' is My Struggle. It's an autobiography, that includes Hitler's political views and stuff like that. There was two volumes of it; one came out in 1925, the other in 1926. He originally wanted to call the book Viereinhalb Jahre (des Kampfes) gegen Lüge, Dummheit und Feigheit (Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice).

I absolutely love how every little bit of fragmented sentence ties together to bring you into an odd, warped form of everthing that happened. It may not make any sense to those who haven't read The Book Thief yet, but to those of us who have taken the time to sit back and read this book, it brings you down into the swirl of words and plot that is The Book Thief. Does anyone feel the same? Good job, Avery! (This is, in fact, Sam [Samantha13] posting because I can't log into my account)

I love the way you copy/pasted the story together. It's very, very lovely, and we all heart you, ginger chan. (Yes, we can heart you without hearts.) Anyways, it is, quite honestly, a gorgegeously layed out representation of what happened in the book.

Well, in the begining when there on the train Liesel's brother had a really bad cough, but Liesel fell asleep, and so did her mom. Her brother was coughing really hard and must have choked. and when Liesel woke up he was dead

I was wondering how Rudy died, it says that he died or hypothermia but it also says that when he died "he would've loved to see the frightening rubble and swelling of the sky on the night he passed away", suggesting there was a nearby bomb exploding. It also says that he would've loved to witness Liesel kissing his "bomb-hit lips" when she discovered him. So did Rudy Steiner die of hypothermia or did he die from an explosion?

That really did confuse me. I thought he did die of hypothermia, but death says… Rudy Steiner does not deserve to die the way he does. That is true it isn't fair someone with his skill and charm dies of a bombing without getting his kiss until he dies.

I'm pretty sure he died from the bombing though, because remember in the book how Leisel was in the basement when the bombing happened? Everyone on Himmel Street was aleep, so they must have all died from the bombing…

I have another question, does anyone else find the book to be a little confusing as to what order the storyline is in? For example in one paragraph death explains that Rudy Steiner dies, and then the next paragraph is about Rudy and Liesel in present time where they are playing soccer? It's a little confusing to me..

I would love to go see the movie, but once you read a book, the movie is never as good. You have a set idea of each character and scene, and sometimes certain things are removed in the movie. If you watch the movie in a mind-set that the book was never written, then movies are perfectly fine. I'll be sure to see the movie, though.

Death is much more than an important theme in the novel, death is THE MAIN THEME. Death is the narrator, death is probably the reason that this book was written. Zusak wanted to show people that death is an unstoppable, completely natural force, and that there is nothing evil about it.